Strokosch believes side have to rely on brains as well as brawn

SCOTLAND coaches have opted for a different blend of pace and power to face Georgia in tomorrow’s second match in the Rugby World Cup, and the players called up are relishing the prospect of improving on the opening performance.

Euan Murray, Jim Hamilton, Nathan Hines and Alasdair Strokosch are powerful figures returning to the spine of the pack, all leaders in different ways and players who have endured battles to win the favour of head coach Andy Robinson.

Along with hooker Scott Lawson and young openside flanker Ross Rennie, this is their opportunity to press claims to start later in the tournament, the heat building when the squad move north to Wellington on Thursday and begin preparations for the third match with Argentina. Murray will not be available for the Sunday game with the Pumas, due to his religious convictions, but if the spectre of defeat again threatens to rear its head tomorrow, he and all of these players may struggle for another look-in at all.

For Strokosch, the Gloucester flanker, the prospect of facing a Georgian pack on his World Cup debut renowned for its physical strength and confrontational approach is manna from heaven. But he also believes brain matter is as crucial to Scottish success as brawn.

“Georgia are going to be dangerous, but if we’re not as big as them we have to be technically a lot better than them, and that’s what I think can stop them,” he said.

“We have to have more urgency, get forward and be aggressive. The confrontational side is what I’ve grown up doing and will probably always do, so I’m looking forward to it. We spend a lot of time talking about how big and hard the Romanians and Georgians are, but to be honest we should be bigger and harder than them. We should be bigger and harder than everyone really, in my opinion, certainly in our mindset. If you go into a match expecting the other team to be so big and hard then you’re setting yourself up for a hiding.

“Our line-speed against Romania wasn’t good enough, the height of our tackles, aggression and impacts weren’t good enough, so it’s down to the guys this week to put it right and set a new marker on that. Other people had the chance on Saturday, and now we have the chance on Wednesday.”

The back line has been reshuffled too, and the ability of Graeme Morrison and Nick De Luca similarly to find their feet quickly in a maiden World Cup adventure will be central to how Scotland fare. Morrison missed the Six Nations this year due to injury, but the centres had developed a successful pairing from their ‘A’ team days through to the two wins away to Argentina and over Ireland at Croke Park, and in the draw with England at Murrayfield in 2010.

Taking over from Sean Lamont and Joe Ansbro, Morrison said: “There is pressure but we have got a good partnership. Nick is really eager to get off the line and hit people which is what I enjoy, and that’s going to be required from both of us, from the team as a whole actually, on Wednesday. It’s about putting a benchmark down now for the rest of the tournament.

“I’d liked to have played against Romania but I couldn’t definitely say I could get through both games so close together because I had pain in my shin and it was sore to run on at the end of last week. I don’t know how I got it. It happened in training and I only really became aware of it when we came off. But a couple of days’ rest and physio and rehab has made it sweet, so I’m ready to go and I’m just delighted to be getting involved in my first World Cup. This game can’t come quick enough for me.”

De Luca is also one of the most livewire members of the squad, a player now 27 and earning his 27th cap tomorrow who has grown up physically and in a rugby sense without losing his natural ebullience and sparky confidence.

Asked what he expected from his first World Cup match, he commented: “We haven’t played Georgia, but we know what to expect. It’s going to be a real tough smash and bash ’em 20 minutes for a start.

“We know they are targeting us, that this is their World Cup on Wednesday night and is what defines them and we have to be aware of that desire and match it. But if we perform like I know we can they won’t be able to live with us. The pressure is on this back line to show that we can create and score tries from all positions, and I look forward to that challenge.”